Reformulating the repository, Digital Intangible Heritage, empathic design and Greek/Unani medicinal practices

Within the emerging domain of Digital Intangible Heritage, my research focuses on the continuity of cultural knowledge by proposing a new model for access to indigenous methodologies. Through the creation of a digital repository of Greek/Unani medicinal practices and an experimental web-based interface to this archive, the research defines a new framework for the description, representation and transmission of these practices. The Unani medicinal system is entrenched in the Middle Eastern and South Asian regions. Through analytic documentation of these practices, I intend to reveal the intricate relationships between a traditional Unani physician´s life experience and clinical practices. For example, I will examine the lifestyle practices of a physician in relation to his diagnostic understanding of lifestyle diseases. Following analytic documentation using a range of digital capture tools and the classification of this material using an extended metadata schema - Dublin Core -the research challenge here is to create a sympathetic interactive information architecture for the repository. Drawing on `empathic design´, `design probes´ and `experiencing prototyping´ the experimental web-based application intends to provide users with an intuitive interface through which to retrieve knowledge and experiences related to accomplished Unani physicians.